Assortment of Pebbles
by aikotters
Summary: Todoroki Shoto is a baker with a fair few secrets. Midoriya Izuku, a tourist trainer, visiting with friends. Perhaps their meeting was fate, destined to test the strength of Shoto's will.
1. Chapter 1

_Warnings: Sleep deprivation, colds_

* * *

_Chapter One - Tourists_

Todoroki Shoto was always the first one in to unlock the door every morning. His Vulpix were always the first customers. The entire bakery smelled like malasada by eight. Everything opened at nine on the dot.

None of this happened that Friday morning.

Instead, Todoroki Shoto woke up at seven thirty with a cold and a close to dead phone that was telling him he was absolutely not going to work today if he wanted to survive until morning. He managed the last bit of his energy and his phone battery to text his boss the problem and put his phone on the charger.

Twenty seconds later, he was out like a light, only to wake up to his vulpix whining and licking his exposed cheek.

"I bet it was you who got me sick," he told the owner of the chilly tongue. Fjorm whined her discontent and touched her nose to his, causing him to jump and almost bite his tongue. Her companion wheezed and hissed behind her.

Shoto shut his mismatched eyes. "Laugh. It will only delay food." He tried to keep his voice stern, as Touya had taught him. Alphonse only wheezed louder. He didn't believe him.

Shoto didn't believe himself.

Normally, habit would have forced him out of bed but his lungs protested him even speaking, so it was starting to look like an impossibility at this point. He almost wanted to tell his impossible partners to hunt some rattata and call it a day.

Or a yungoos. The two of them could eat a yungoos and nobody would care.

Then Alphonse bit down onto his ear and he grumbled. "Fine, fine."

Apparently all they wanted to hunt were stationary objects today. Lazy little imps. Shoto pulled himself out of bed, wincing at the stickiness and the sweat dampening his shirt and the white and red bangs sticking to his forehead.

"You'd better not eat it all," he warned them. "That will be all you get until tomorrow." He coughed to prove his point and dislodge the gunk in his throat. How did he even get a cold this early in the summer?

"The tapu are cursing me," he muses. A thrill of pride filled him in the seconds after he said those words.

Fuyumi-nee-san had been correct. He was… adapting, much more quickly than he had anticipated.

If only he could have brought her with him. Seeing as Natsuo hadn't bothered.

He shook himself and sneezed. Wiping his nose with a tissue, he wandered through the kitchen. It was harder than it looked, considering he was dodging his foxes' paws every few steps.

Within minutes, Shoto emptied the last of the food bags into the bowls. For a moment, he squinted at the foil and then rubbed his eyes.

"Stay," he told both vulpix. Both mewed their acknowledgement with their mouths full, leaving him alone to put a mask over his face and pull on actual clothes. By the time he was toeing on shoes without socks (which was making him shift on antsy toes from one to the other), Fjorm was at his side, breathing gentle clouds at his ankles.

"You're coming with." It was meant to be a question, but failed to be one. Fjorm mewed. "That means Alphonse too then." He paused to cough. "Get him before he eats your dinner."

Moments later, the three of them were out of the house. By now, after not even an hour on his feet, Shoto's head was throbbing madly. He added a new box of painkillers to his mental grocery list as he walked down two streets. He constantly sent a separate prayer to the tapu that the malasada owner had no interest in expanding and sending another store to the depths of Hau-oli.

Then he cursed himself. He had forgotten to put on sunscreen. He would be burnt to a crisp when he got home. He had his mother's pale skin and his father's heat absorption.

Neither of which were comforting thoughts, so Shoto proceeded to abandon them.

The cashier at the door clucked sympathetically as he walked in. "You too, dearie?"

Shoto shivered in response, able to blame it on the cold rather than the candid affection that was prone to the Alolan people. Three years of it and it still made him consider diving into the chilly smog of Black City just to escape the sheer good-naturedness of it all. "Me too?" he parroted for lack of anything better to say.

The woman nodded, arms flexing as she reached down underneath the counter. She probably had the cold recovery pack on standby all of the time. Kids were always wearing themselves out and getting sick, he supposed.

"Oh, dear old Hala just told me his daughter was under the weather and went to get him one of these, and same for Ilima's wife and son. They were too long out in that recent monsoon. Artificial they said it was. Good it's over now. Hau's still up and running of course, but a little sniffle would never get that boy down."

Shoto nodded vaguely. He had not been out in the storm for more than an hour total in the runs between work and his apartment. That shouldn't have been enough to get him this sick, but you never knew. Alola and Hoenn did their storms in a similar way after all.

He sniffled behind his mask and the woman tutted.

"Listen to you," she chided. "Go on and get the rest of your things so you can go rest properly young man."

Shoto was more than happy to obey. Vulpix at his heels, he hurried through the aisles with his basket.

The little store wasn't too crowded. Most people did their shopping at the malls anyway, but it was still nice to have some quiet as he browsed for feed and human food and extra supplies. This just had to last him a week or so, except the food. That needed to stretch to two.

_It's not like Midnight won't try to pay you more anyway, _a little voice reminded him in the back of his head.

He didn't want her to though, that was the problem. She worked him very little and paid him very much in his opinion. But she also said his looks were good business. So it was probably in her best interest to keep him happy, whatever his good business was.

He reached the register and grimaced behind his mask. There was someone chatting with the cashier. A creature padded about on four cream colored paws, climbing up on its hind legs to rub at the boy's jeans. Their head was a mass of green curls, looped about in a mess on their head that eclipsed their ears. The creature at his feet let out a yipping chittering sound and raised itself up on its back paws. Its forepaws clambered to reach his arm. The person looked down and grinned. "I know, I know, we'll go soon."

"What a feisty little thing," said the cashier with a laugh. "Got a lot of spirit, does he?"

"Had to to keep up with my friends," the boy replied. "He's still not evolved yet, so he's gotta keep up somehow."

"How sweet," said the woman. As the person laughed, Shoto couldn't help but think it must not be sweet at all.

That brief moment of not observing gave Alphonse all the opportunity he needed to scoot over to the group of people and _bark _loudly at them all.

Shoto groaned. Both human and pokemon jumped. The quilava turned and barrelled into Alphonse. And it was clearly a much stronger pokemon because within seconds, his little idiot was crying his eyes out. He coughed underneath his face mask and moved over. Slowly because moving made his head throb, but quick enough that they noticed.

"Sorry," he managed to say. "Alphonse, you idiot… Why do you always have to try and pick on things bigger than you?"

His fire vulpix made a pitiful whine, now buried under the creature's likely heavy weight. Fjorm rolled her ice blue eyes as she trotted over to bark at the quilava. The quilava barked back, ruby red eyes narrowed into slits. Then, he yipped and clambered off back to his human's side. Alphonse groaned with every step. He picked himself off and shook before trotting back to Shoto with his tails drooping down.

The other trainer's face was flushed. "Kat-chan you know better than to answer like that. He was just saying hello, wasn't he?"

Kat-chan the quilava made a disagreeing grumble as their trainer went up to Shoto. "I'm sorry about that, Kat-chan's usually better about these things. Personally I think it's the Alola air, it's really similar to Pallet's, you see and-"

"It's all right." Shoto raised a hand to punctuate his words, voice muffled by the mask. "Alphonse is an idiot who likes picking fights he can't win." He scratched his partner behind the ears as Fjorm returned, smacking her partner with her tails. He barked at her and earned a scoffing sound in returned.

"That's Kat-chan's problem too, if I'm honest." Shoto straightened as the other grinned at him. "I'm Midoriya Izuku. I'm here to explore the islands for a while and hunt down some Alolan pokemon. And you are?"

Shoto hesitated. That was not an Unovan accent. At best, it was Sinnohan. Still, did he want to risk everything on a single greeting? Definitely not. "...Shoto."

Midoriya smiled. "It's nice to meet you Shoto-kun."

"Just Shoto," he said, throat raspy and hoarse. "It's not a big deal, Midoriya."

Midoriya beamed for a moment, the sun coming out and warming Shoto's face pleasantly rather than with prickling overwhelming heat. Then a puzzled look came over his face. "You're sick."

"Thank you for noticing the obvious," he said dryly. The notability of his situation had worn off at this point and now he was tired and just wanted to pay for his crap and go home, which had been the entire plan from the start. But of course he got sidetracked. "Do you mind if I pay?"

"Oh go ahead!" Midoriya scrambled with his things and pulled away, leaving Shoto dropping his own for the cashier. They grinned sympathetically at him.

"The dangers of having pets," she said with a smile. From under the counter came a small zapping sound. The cashier's magnemite likely.

Fjorm and Alphonse made identical cries of disdain at being pets. Shoto merely took solace in the fact that no one could see his mouth and the way it was twitching away from its blank line.

Trainers… he really didn't know what to do with them anymore. And all they usually were just customers anyway. He didn't need to worry his head on it too much. There were other things that he could do and other ways to make money beyond battling. Battling was just both the easiest and the hardest. And his pokemon weren't pets, not really. THey just weren't battlers and that was good enough for him.

"Something like that," he finally said after a while.

Shoto was never so happy to pay and escape in his life.

* * *

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the boy did not just disappear from Hau'oli. He was sometimes with a tall, stocky boy, stiff to the teeth and with a giant silver bird on one stocky arm. Sometimes a pikachu spun about his shoulders. Other times there was a brunette with a familiar creature overtaking her shoulders with its blue paws.

But they had never stepped into the malasada shop before today either so Shoto had little to no frame of reference to understanding them. Nor had he wanted any.

The girl was gesturing happily at the counter though, so it didn't seem like he was getting a choice in the matter. Reaching the counter, she smiled up at him.

"Hi there!" She sounded that soft kind of bubbly, the kind you associated with cotton candy and oran berry juice. "What do you recommend?"

"Malasadas," he said, brain having gone completely blank at the question as it always did.

Instead of steaming, the girl laughed, and Shoto forced his brain back into cohesion. "My pokemon would recommend the spicy and sweet ones though."

"His vulpix are smart, I'd trust them," commented the familiar green boy, who flashed him a smile of his own.

And Shoto felt no flip flop in his stomach of nerves. But he did feel something pleasant all the same.

* * *

_**A/N:**_ Heyo! It's time for fun! I'll update this one as I finish new chapters. (We're at ch 4 btw) I'm trying to keep Todoroki as in character for his age as possible (unlike phoenix where I'm aiming to keep him as five years old as possible) Please let me know what you think!

Challenges: Poke No Hero Big Bang.

Thank you to sheepy for the cover art!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two - Ruins

Midoriya Izuku hadn't felt quite so at home in quite some time.

His time in Sinnoh had been long, peppered with so many incidents he had stopped being able to remember them all in exact detail (though that was what journals were for, especially with his new found habit of scanning and typing them up.). Even with everything he had to do on the islands, there was no real hurry to accomplish it. It didn't help he had plenty of research and nowhere to concentrate his focus and well-

Okay he was enjoying his vacation. After his past year roughing it, he deserved something of a break. That was exactly how he had phrased it to his mother anyway, and it wasn't too far off from the truth.

Watching Uraraka-san (Ochako, she had told him to use over and over, he was getting better, he promised) make conversation with the cashier, all smiles and casual kindness made him a little heartsick. Which couldn't be helped, they loved each other as only they could really. But in his defense right now, heartsick was preferable to that blank, haunting stare she was pointedly ignoring from the cashier. All the other shopkeepers tended to have this genuine enthusiasm and joy with the world and life in general. That seemed to be at least some of the Alola traditions, he thought. But this one seemed at best, horrified at the concept, or at least vaguely uncomfortable with them. Still, it was none of his business.

_Heroes tend to make everything their business in times like this, _his mentor's voice chimed in his heart and it was only thinking of him laying in bed that kept a ridiculous grin from filling Izuku's whole face.

Finally, Ochako seemed satisfied and flopped back over to himself and Iida, who was looking at her with narrowed eyes but a twitching mouth. He wasn't nearly as immune to Uraraka-san as he pretended he was. Which was good, it was hard to stand tall against that amount of genuine good will. It was really too bad she wasn't officially allowed to work with them yet.

Things would have been a lot easier if she was.

He sat back in the booth, casting the cashier another awkward smile as Ochako settled next to him with Iida on the other side. Once they were looking at him, still all smiles and ease of course, Izuku settled on his elbows, not even wincing at the bandages dragging on his arms. "So, I'll hopefully be going to look at the ruins this week," he said cheerily. "Any luck on getting into the trial site?"

"Afraid not." Iida waved an arm. "You need the accompaniment of the Trial Captain or a trial goer that's completed it and Ojiro has been too busy to convince Ilima. Uraraka-san, have you secured a ferry for Akala?"

"Yup in two weeks." She made a face. "You make it sound like I got the hard job."

"You're the most secure with funds and timing that I have ever seen of our age group, Uraraka-san," Iida said, so serious the girl's cheeks flushed pink. "If anything, if we don't leave the logistics to you, I'd end up making things much less enjoyable."

"And I'd make us late," Izuku added. "And you wouldn't make it that bad Iida. Just too many minutes clocked in."

"Exactly!"

Izuku almost laughed, almost. But he saw the way that the cashier was looking at them while taking orders and he made himself pause. He must have been laughing too loudly. That's all. "Anyway, I'll be talking to Hapu again today," he said. "I might be able to see if she can get you a trial amulet to examine at least."

"If only I weren't too old!" Iida swiped his bulky arms in disgust. "Then it would be much less frowned upon! But this a sport for the young!"

"We're fifteen Iida," the other two chorused together and he flushed. A faint smile flashed on his face all the same.

"Their young is eleven," he explained and they both beamed, a loose, easy smile on their faces. Ochako rolled her eyes at him, fond but exasperated.

"It's our young too, you know."

They both laughed again and this time, Iida joined them.

"Your malasada are done," called the cashier and the three of them turned.

"I will retrieve them," Iida said, and went to do so, immediately dragging the poor cashier into conversation _again_ as he did so.

Uraraka and Izuku shared a knowing look and settled back in their seats. "Cute, isn't he?" Ochako said after a moment.

Izuku almost jumped. "_What?"_

"Mina-san would say that right about now," Ochako continued, smooth as ever. "And knowing your type was Kirishima, she'd be baffled at least."

Izuku pretended not to hear that last part because if he didn't, he was going to hurl up his breakfast. "How is she?"

"Hoenn's too hot, she said last night." Ochako's eyes were sparkling with mirth. She knew what he was doing and still found it hilarious. Mina was the _worst_ influence on her. "Though it's her own fault for wanting to stop there in the middle of summer instead of Unova. At least there they have seasons."

"What was that about Unova?"

Iida had returned with the cashier, food in hand. "He said he was going on break soon so I insisted he join us. Of course he does not have to eat the fare."

"I've had too much of it in my life," said the cashier quietly, eyes staring, more like boring holes, at Izuku. Izuku straightened in his chair by reflex. He seemed at least a little familiar, now that he could look past the apron with rockruff prints. "My pokemon would say there was never enough if they could talk."

"Pokemon will say that about any food," Ochako said fondly. She shifted her bag in her arms as she shoved it over to the other side of the booth. Or it moved. With her it could go either way. "Please, sit down. We don't bite. Well, I don't, I can't promise that about Deku-kun though."

Izuku flushed. "I should never have told you that. Never."

The cashier looked between them, mismatched eyes flickering with something, probably bafflement. Ochako could see all those hard lines and sharp edges and not be intimidated. He was just a quieter, more awkward Katsuki. And if Katsuki had some manners. Ooh she was still going to deck him one one of these days.

Her eyes were still on the cashier, who though he hadn't smiled, did quirk an eyebrow. "You bite?" he asked the other boy, who made a face.

"It, it was stupid, was all. I was a kid and I wasn't good with pokemon yet." His face still burning, he took a large bite of his malasada, sauce squishing under his fingers from where he had ungraciously dunked them into the puddle left on the spare plate. His eyes started to sparkle almost as soon as it hit his tongue. "Whoa."

"Midnight knows her stuff," agreed the cashier. He was still unsmiling, but his eyes had softened a little. "She claims the human reactions are so much better than the pokemon, and tested it on everyone she could get her chest on."

"Do… Are you quite certain you don't mean her hands?" Iida asked, ever cautious. Ochako didn't even look over, already flicking flaky crust from her fingers and humming to herself.

"No, her chest." The cashier didn't elaborate, and Izuku really didn't want him to. He was lying to his mother enough as it was. "She has a very terrible concept of personal space.

"That… is probably not legal."

"You need a case first." The cashier brushed his hair back behind his ear, and it made his already visible scar so much more stark against the lights. All three of them made the effort to not pay too much attention. "So," he continued. "What brings you to the tapu's ruins?"

All three of them looked at each other. "I suppose if we wanted to be secretive we shouldn't be talking in broad daylight in a food place," Iida said with a small sigh. "We're interested in the ruins and their relation to the tapu mostly for research reasons."

"Elio and Selene's reports should have been all the public needed, surely." The cashier's face was twisting a little with discomfort. "Mind you, I did see the _Ultra Beasts _from a distance and that was enough, let alone Tapu Koko himself."

"That's fair." Ochako chirped and they all watched the intentionally stoic face go stark with understandable terror. Ochako inspired that in people with her unflappable good will. "For us it's just a personal curiosity. I'm from Sinnoh and some of our legends like to get up close and personal. I just want to see if there's any relation to their behavior here."

"I do as well!" Iida smiled fondly. "It's all under my duty for professor adjunct Ingenium. He's looking to have me succeed him and I would like him to see that I will eventually be worthy of the position."

"My mentor asked me to look into it while I'm on vacation, just for fun." Izuku smiled as he spoke, pausing in his delighted devouring of a so-called harmless snack. "He said I needed a vacation and it'll be awhile until I get to Ula'Ula. So we started small, you see."

"I see…" The cashier sighed. "Well, unless you've been living here for over three months, have permission from the kahuna or trial captain, or you have one or the other with you, you can't go to the ruins or the trial sites. It was a long fought over law but it's been helping with keeping the rest of Team Skull well out of everyone's hair, so it can't be too awful."

The teen paused as if for dramatic effect. But then when the silence trailed on, Izuku spoke up. "Would it be any trouble for you to take us up to the ruins? Or even just me? You see, I'm a fast note taker, and it wouldn't be too much trouble."

The young man looked at him again, and as Iida and Ochako watched, they saw the multicolored eyes glitter with something, something old and dark. They both gave each other a glance.

Then he nodded. "Sure. I'm Todoroki Shoto. I've been here long enough they won't glance."

He got three smiles with the strength of seven magnezone each pointed at him and it warmed some part of him gently, in a good way.

A way that did not include a magmortar's barrel pointed right at his face.

As he settled in his seat for the rest of his break, he watched the quilava splay over its humans lap, a skarmory perch on the offered wooden dowel, a rotom zip around (and wasn't that rare, rotoms were commonly in pokedexes now, right?) and his two pokeballs, quivering for attention.

He tapped them once, then twice, and then they both wobbled and popped out anyway, scattering soot and snow on the floor like he hadn't just brushed them two hours ago, the little bastards.

They sprawled, yipping and sniping at the pokemon above them like they had a chance in any afterlife of causing actual damage.

"Are they always like this? Ochako's question was so cheerful it hurt his heart. In the face of it, all Shoto could do was nod in the face of it, and be relieved he wasn't so obvious that these clearly intelligent people did not recognize him by name. Todoroki Shoto, final son of Todoroki Enji, aka Black, hero of Unova and caller to Reshiram.

Anonymity was a fine thing.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three - True Companions

Shoto always treaded up the steps to the ruins with dread and awe weighing down his legs. The first day he'd been able to walk after he arrived, his pokemon prancing about like puffed up cocky fools who think they can protect him, even though they both failed and suffered for it, nearly tripped him up the whole way there. Which hadn't helped the sensation.

Hala of course had laughed it up. He hadn't been the inspiration of Fatgum for nothing, after all. "Relax boy, don't eat yourself up before the tapu does," he had said.

And it hadn't helped much, barring the fact that he had come to the conclusion that he hadn't been being laughed at, only invited to laugh along. Still, he'd been brought to the tapu anyway, as a former curiosity of Selene's had brought her to be.

She stayed there, he realized now. At the time he hadn't noticed, still blinded with pain and jet lag and fear, so much fear. But nowadays he would be the one dragged around to bring her food or make sure she hadn't wasted away in the night. No one could get her home, and he wasn't interested enough to try. So they sent him on his days off.

This is what he explained to Midoriya Izuku this time as the two of them ascend the stairs, Bakuko at Izuku's heels and Alphonse and Fjorm racing ahead. Unlike the then terrified Shoto (he'd been near a reshiram thank you!), Izuku didn't even seem phased.

"After coming back from Ultra Space," he said, taking a sip of water. He hadn't talked this much in a long time. At least not to other people. "Selene took a turn for isolation. She let her brother take the championship crown, supposedly, while she retreated back here, stayed by the tapu. She moved out here."

"I see…"

"She's fine usually. Doesn't pray much, dances at sunset once every two weeks. She sings a lot. You'll hear her soon. She uses it to train her Pokemon in the mornings."

Izuku was nodding eagerly as he scribbled. How he could do that as he walked Shoto had no idea. "And it's lunchtime so she'll be free to explain anything."

"Likely yeah." Shoto shifted forward. "Just so you know, she'll probably seem a little weird. The tapu talks to her like she's a kahuna. It weirds out tourists."

"I've seen Uraraka-san in conduit with giratina." Izuku's voice was pure candid cheer, even as Shoto's eyes grew wider and wider with every passing word. "It'll be fine."

"You've _what."_

"Her story, not mine. I was just an observer. Anyway is it across this bridge here?" Izuku raised his hand from his notebook to point with his pen.

Shoto swallowed the questions boiling in his gut. "Yeah," he said instead because after all this really was none of his business. He was just doing for others as Alola wanted people to do. He could always figure it out later.

Or not. It was safer to not. He had finally belonged here.

"Bridge is still pretty new so we should be good."

He got another megawatt smile for his approval and it stung some part of him he couldn't explain. Then Izuku paused and returned his notebook, reaching into his back to pull out another pokeball. He released a snoozing blue seal into his arms.

"Poppy had a late night last night," he confided over the pokemon's head. Bakuko scoffed by her trainer's foot, scratching an ear. "No thanks to you," Izuku added to the fire type. Bakuko puffed up and stood on her hind legs, nose in the air.

Shoto made a face, glancing at his own two errant troublemakers. They both mewed at him, ever so innocent. Liars. Izuku laughed at the undeniably pouty looks both pokemon had and they set across the bridge.

Shoto swallowed, pointedly looking away from the sharp rocks and the crashing sound of the waves.

"Not a fan of heights?" Izuku adjusted his grip on Poppy, looking completely at ease despite all the creaks beneath his bright red boots. Shoto twitched every time he heard it, thinking not of creaking bridges but crackling flames.

"_People tend to make their own truths, little coal. Make your own here and now, and maybe you'll see what I do."_

"Not really, no," he admitted before he could control his tongue.

Izuku shifted. "I'm so sorry-!"

"Don't be, Hala has me bring supplies and such every now and again. Everyone does it around here. It's good practice I guess." Shoto pointedly looked towards the mouth of the cave. "Just… don't let me look down."

Down towards not the wash of the sea but his blood on the floor, dripping over his sister's voice, his mother's shouts.

"Just look at me." Izuku said, stepping forward once more. "Or in my direction, I mean. Okay?"

"I'm fine." Shoto didn't have the heart to say he'd been just fine before Izuku had come around and would be fine after, something in those eyes made the words die in his throat. "Thanks."

"Mm." If he was offended, he didn't show it.

They crossed the bridge, Shoto busying his mind with the weight of the supplies on his back and with the chatter of the boy just ahead of him. At some point, they had crossed, leaving only the gaping ruin maw to stare them down.

As soon as they got a few meters away, Shoto held out his arm. Even his pokemon stopped, though sulkily. "You know the rules," he told Alphonse, who scoffed and almost nudged a toe forward out of sheer spite.

"Rules?" Izuku tried to do a delicate balancing act of using his popplio as a writing surface. Said water type squirmed with irritation.

"Yeah. She has to acknowledge us first so Tapu Koko doesn't think they can fight every human who comes here with a mago berry. If she doesn't, the tapu fries you through the mouth of the cave."

"Really?"

Shoto had at least expected concern or disgust or something normal. Midoriya Izuku just sounded fascinated, a trait only suitable for the most reckless of people. "Not always but usually. Best not to take your chances."

"Duly noted." The interest hadn't quite left Izuku's face and Shoto was going to get away from it and preserve his life.

He turned back to the mouth of the ruins and called. "Selene! Are you awake?"

There was no answer at first, but Shoto expected this. She tended to get absorbed in whatever she was doing. Or she was in the back with the tapu's conduit, singing for it as she often did.

"Selene," He called again. "Come on, before your malasada get cold."

"I'm not Hau, autumn boy." Someone responded. Alphonse and Fjorm tensed up and growled, their many tails up stiff. "Do appreciate a spicy one though, now and again."

"Stop responding every time I mention a malasada and I may believe you." He kept himself disinterested, but his pokemon did not, shooting forward for attention like he didn't brush through their fur every night with expensive brushes. He ought to check in with his sister soon, see how she was doing up at the top.

Izuku looked between them as the girl approached, her long dark hair buried under a straw hat. She walked slowly, like the world was in her way rather than the other way around, her sandals clapping lightly against the earth.

"You have a friend autumn boy!" She cried, clapping her hands and lowering her head a little. As she completed her makeshift bow, Izuku caught a glimpse of storm-grey eyes sparkling with gold. With streaks that flickered and changed with every movement every one of them made. "Who is this? You don't have friends."

The words would have been caustic out of any one else's mouth, like Touya's even, but from her they almost sounded pleased. As if only she had monopolized his time for so long and had come to anticipate it as a matter of course.

Shoto made no indication that he even cared. "Do my pokemon not count?"

"Pokemon are anything but friends," she said, kneeling down to greet the two yapping foxes. "Hello you two, giving your boy any trouble?"

"Always," Shoto shot back before he could quite control his mouth. It was hard to not be flippant around Selene, she asked for nothing else. Not much on manners or on human conventions, they were all lucky practicality caused her to wear clothes. But it was all so refreshing, even if a little disturbing.

He stepped closer and set the pack down, wiping sweat off his neck from the midday sun. "Provisions again," he said as his pokemon clambered over her and pawed up her legs.

Selene merely flicked them off, unphased. "Thank you much. So," she looked back up at Izuku, who straightened like he had been-

Nope no need to think of that. Not at all.

"Who are you, greenie? You don't smell like islanders."

Izuku blinked and shook his head. "Not at all. I'm from Johto, Miss Selene."

"No miss, I'm eighteen." She sat down, her hair slapping the sand as she crouched, leaning into the bag to examine her goods. "And I thought I knew that smell. Bro and I are Kanto ourselves. Elio's on Ula'Ula though, acting like he's hot stuff as the champion and Koko likes him a teeny bit. So why are you here?"

"Just to relax." Izuku was smiling, though his quilava was making a face like it was going to slap a better answer out of him herself. "See the sights. Get a break. I took my scholarship exams a few weeks ago."

"Did you now?" And interest filled the young woman's voice. "I'm supposed to take them for university even though I've been disavowed. Mom's orders. It's very boring, isn't it?"

"Some necessary things are boring," Izuku replied with a small grin. "But yeah it's horrible. We got like, three breaks and a lunch that tasted like trainer MREs put on a stove."

Shoto made a face to imagine it and Selene laughed hard. "Oh now that's a hell I don't want to relive. Better you than me, greenie."

Izuku smiled back and set his notebook down. Poppy was stirring awake now and Izuku took to stroking his face and getting through the irritable grumbles of his new pokemon.

"I'm sorry, there's just no fun sleeping during the day if you don't have to," he told him and the seal bwarked his reply. Shoto picked up Fjorm and put her in his lap. She curled up there without a sound until he stroked her fur. The cold chased up his skin as she started to purr and churr. Alphonse pawed at his other hand and Shoto sighed, scratching him under the chin.

"I spoil you two."

"Someone in that house has to and they sure won't spoil themselves." Selene only looked fonder if possible, finishing her examination and calling out a black and pink bear that towered over their heads twice over sitting up, never mind standing. He knelt with a low groan and let his trainer kiss him fondly on the cheek, before moving to carry the items on the ground. Selene spun her hat around her finger, humming some tune that sounded older than Shoto's hometown.

Then she glanced back over at Izuku. "So, what are you really here for, greenie? You're a trainer, now a tourist. What are you here for?"

Izuku looked at her, looked at Shoto. Looked at her. Then he shrugged and replied with, "Giratina." as if it was no big deal at all.


End file.
